Cash incentive to check population growth

LUCKNOW : Getting married after the age of 19 and having first child after a gap of two years from marriage ( at the age of 21) will fetch a cash reward to girls in the state who belong to below poverty line (BPL), scheduled caste and scheduled tribe families.

Under its latest initiative, the national population stabilization fund (NPSF), in association with State Innovations in Family Planning Services Project Agency (SIFPSA) has launched the scheme in Uttar Pradesh to help control population growth.

“The scheme is running on the basis of an MoU between NPSF and SIFPSA,” said nodal officer, SIFPSA, Rajesh Bangia. The MoU has several initiatives and cash reward for girls is one of them. As per the scheme, the girl should get married after the age of 19 years and should have first child at a gap of two years. If the first child is a girl, the mother gets ₹12,000 and in case it is a boy, ₹10,000. There are other incentives later.

In case a couple has second child three years after the birth of the first child and within one year of the birth of the second child the couple adopts some permanent family planning method, there is again a cash reward. The birth of a girl as second child gets the couple ₹7,000 and in case of a boy ₹5,000.

SIFPSA officials say they are looking for couples who got married after 2011 and who fit the scheme for the population day event in New Delhi on July 11. “If there are such couples we can felicitate them in the event in New Delhi,” said Bangia.

At present, 57 districts in the state have total fertility rate (TFR) of over 3, which means a woman bearing three or more children in lifetime. Two will be an ideal situation for the state, say officials.

UP HAS 32% COUPLES USING MODERN FAMILY PLANNING METHODS. 81 LAKH COUPLES WISH TO USE THEM BUT HAVE UNMET NEEDS